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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 106 / Friday, June 4, 2021 / Proposed Rules
potential disturbancewhich would entail the gradual and highly visible approach of a small vessel and small research crewwe would expect that pinnipeds would exhibit a gradual response escalation, and that stampeding or abandonment of pups would likely not be an issue. Further, neither survey with potential for harassment from visual disturbance overlaps with the gray seal pupping period.
Disturbance of pinnipeds caused by NEFSC survey activitieswhich are sparsely distributed in space and time would be expected to last for only short periods of time, separated by significant amounts of time in which no disturbance occurred. The Penobscot Estuarine Fish Community and Ecosystem Survey uses shrimp trawls and occurs over 12 days per year split between spring, summer and fall seasons. The Marine Estuaries Diadromous Survey uses fyke nets and takes place over 100 days from April to November. Because such disturbance is sporadic, rather than chronic, and of low intensity, individual marine mammals are unlikely to incur any detrimental impacts to vital rates or ability to forage and, thus, loss of fitness. Correspondingly, even local populations, much less the overall stocks of animals, are extremely unlikely to accrue any significantly detrimental impacts.
Anticipated Effects on Marine Mammal Habitat Effects to PreyIn addition to direct, or operational, interactions between fishing gear and marine mammals, indirect i.e., biological or ecological interactions occur as well, in which marine mammals and fisheries both utilize the same resource, potentially resulting in competition that may be mutually disadvantageous e.g., Northridge, 1984; Beddington et al., 1985; Wickens, 1995. Marine mammal prey varies by species, season, and location and, for some marine mammals, is not well documented.
NEFSC fisheries research removals of species commonly utilized by marine mammals are relatively low. Prey of sei whales and blue whales are primarily zooplankton, which are targeted by NEFSC fisheries research with collection only on the order of liters, so the likelihood of research activities changing prey availability is low and impact negligible to none. Prey species biomass removed during NEFSC surveys is very small relative to their overall biomass in the area and is a very small percentage of the Allowable Biological Catch ABC. For example, NEFSC

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fisheries research activities may affect sperm whale prey squid, but this is expected to be minor due to the insignificant amount of squid removed through fisheries research i.e., 4 tons in 2017. However, here the removal by NEFSC fisheries research, regardless of season and location is minor relative to that taken through commercial fisheries.
For example, commercial fisheries catches for most pelagic species typically range from the hundreds to thousands of metric tons, whereas the catch in similar fisheries research activities would only occasionally range as high as hundreds to thousands of pounds in any particular year see Table 91 of the NEFSC Application for more information on fish catch during research surveys and commercial harvest. In addition to the small amount of biomass removed, the size classes of fish targeted in research surveys are juvenile individuals, some of which are only centimeters long;
these small size classes are not known to be prey of marine mammals.
Research catches are also distributed over a wide area because of the random sampling design covering large sample areas. Fish removals by research are therefore highly localized and unlikely to affect the spatial concentrations and availability of prey for any marine mammal species. The overall effect of research catches on marine mammals through competition for prey may therefore be considered insignificant for all species.
Physical HabitatNEFSC conducts some bottom trawling, which may physically damage seafloor habitat. In addition, NEFSC fishery research activities use bottom contact fishing gear, including otter trawls, sea scallop dredges, and hydraulic surfclam dredges. Other fishing gear that contacts the seafloor, such as pots and traps, can cause physical damage but the impacts are localized and minimal as this type of gear is fixed in position. The ropeless lobster traps planned for ongoing use would have minimal effect of seafloor habitat. Physical damage may include furrowing and smoothing of the seafloor as well as the displacement of rocks and boulders, and such damage can increase with multiple contacts in the same area Schwinghamer et al., 1998; Kaiser et al., 2002; Malik and Mayer, 2007; NRC, 2002. The effects of bottom contact gear differ in each type of benthic environment. In sandy habitats with strong currents, the furrows created by mobile bottom contact gear quickly begin to erode because lighter weight sand at the edges of furrows can be easily moved by water back towards the center of the furrow NRC, 2002.

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Duration of effects in these environments therefore tend to be very short because the terrain and associated organisms are accustomed to natural disturbance. By contrast, the physical features of more stable hard bottom habitats are less susceptible to disturbance, but once damaged or removed by fishing gear, the organisms that grow on gravel, cobbles, and boulders can take years to recover, especially in deeper water where there is less natural disturbance NRC, 2002.
However, the area of benthic habitat affected by NEFSC research each year would be a very small fraction of total area of benthic habitat in the research areas.
Damage to seafloor habitat may also harm infauna and epifauna i.e., animals that live in or on the seafloor or on structures on the seafloor, including corals Schwinghamer et al., 1998;
Collie et al., 2000; Stevenson et al., 2004. In general, recovery from biological damage varies based on the type of fishing gear used, the type of seafloor surface i.e., mud, sand, gravel, mixed substrate, and the level of repeated disturbances. Recovery timelines of 118 months are expected.
However, repeated disturbance of an area can prolong the recovery time Stevenson et al., 2004, and recovery of corals may take significantly longer than 18 months.
Organisms such as cold water corals create structure on the seafloor that not only contain a high diversity of corals but also provide an important habitat for other infauna Stevenson, Chiarella et al. 2004. Cold water corals are generally slow growing, fragile and long lived that makes them particularly vulnerable to damage. Fishing gear that contacts coral can break or disrupt corals reducing structural complexity and reducing species diversity of the corals and other animals that utilize this habitat Freiwald, Fossa et al. 2004. The extent of overlap between cold water corals and NEFSC survey vessels is expected to be limited given the small number and small areal extent of NEFSC surveys and funded fishery research using bottom trawl and dredging equipment.
In addition, only two surveys occur outside of the LME, the Deepwater Biodiversity Survey and the Deep-sea Corals Survey. Neither of these surveys use bottom contacting gear. Although fisheries research effects on corals may be long-term, the magnitude of this potential effect is negligible.
Fishing gear that contacts the seafloor can increase the turbidity of the water by suspending fine sediments and benthic algae. Suspension of fine sediments and turnover of sediment can
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